


The Imperfect Vessel

by elenathehun



Series: The Imperfect Vessel [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Human Sacrifice, Politics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 00:17:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8599561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elenathehun/pseuds/elenathehun
Summary: There is no girl named Kushina bound and ready for the sacrifice; Leaf must find a different replacement, and ill-made though she is, Tsunade is the best they have at hand. [Canon divergence after the destruction of Whirlpool]





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crowind](https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowind/gifts).



Later, Tsunade will wonder if she ought to be _honored_ that Sarutobi had come to fetch her back to the village personally. It was an indirect compliment, of a sort: a man widely acclaimed the strongest of the five Kages and the greatest among of the pillars of the known world had traveled all the way out to a nameless little hamlet in the middle of nowhere, just to convince Tsunade to return home. It might be flattering to a different sort of person, but Tsunade was a cynic, and in that moment, Tsunade just felt tired and wary of the man sitting across the table from her.

“You’ve come a long way for nothing, old man,” she said flatly. Sarutobi barked out a single laugh, but he didn’t look amused.

“In the ordinary course of events, I would just leave you be,” he responded, exhaustion in every line of his body. It had been eighteen months since Tsunade had turned in her insignia and left forever; in that time, Sarutobi looked like he’d aged five years. Evidently, keeping the peace was just as difficult as winning the war. "But events have overtaken us all. It’s time to return home, Tsunade - your grandmother is dying.“

"She’s eighty years old,” Tsunade scoffed. "It was bound to happen sometime. And given how we parted, she wouldn’t expect her greatest disappointment to return for some kind of deathbed reconciliation, anyway. Don’t tell me that’s why you came - a message hawk would have been far more efficient. I imagine the _great_ and _powerful_ Hokage has better things to do with his time than hunting down a woman who left the war behind her?“

“I’d hoped you wouldn’t say that Tsunade,” Sarutobi sighed, and Tsunade felt her hackles rise. He seemed genuinely regretful, not that it meant anything. Sarutobi always wore his heart on his sleeve, but _always_ did what he thought was best for the village as a whole. “Let me be more direct: You’re a soldier of the Leaf, and I’m ordering you to return.”

There was a long, deadly pause, and then-

“Oh, _are you_?” Tsunade sneered with an ugly tone to her voice. "And how, pray tell, are you going to make me?”

In response, Sarutobi flipped the table and shoved it right into her face. Tsunade swore, and dodged to the right, only to find _fucking Mitokado_ , the crusty old guy, right in her path. Eighteen months since she’d left the village, eighteen months since she’d last raised her fists for war - somehow, she managed to dance away from Mitokado’s clever kick combos, only to find herself pinned against a wall by Sarutobi, damnable stave in hand. With a less than impressive crash, Tsunade kicked the wall of the bar out and jumped into the open area in the back. Nearly a decade since she’d mastered her own unique taijutsu style and the old-timers still forgot her limits - or rather, the _lack_ of them. Tsunade smirked at the shocked looks on their faces.

"Two on one? That’s a bit unsporting of you, Sarutobi- _sensei_ ,” Tsunade called out to them. "Did you really feel you needed the backup, just to bring me in?“

Mitokado’s eyes narrowed at that, but Sarutobi’s face didn’t change, still wearing that regretful mask. His regrets wouldn’t prevent him from beating her half to death and then taking her back the village by force, though. The two men split up once they stepped out into the open, circling around to flank her. It was smart of them, and if she were any other person, it would have worked. Most taijutsu specialists couldn’t handle two equally matched opponents at the same time - but Tsunade wasn’t just _any_ taijutsu specialist, and she had ways of dealing with multiple high-ranked opponents.

A punch towards her left shattered the ground under Sarutobi’s feet, and he swore as he fell into a new ravine in the landscape. Tsunade paid no attention to him, though. She had already leaped towards Mitokado - the older man was a long-range fighter above all else. If she could get into his range and land a knock-out punch, she’d only have to deal with Sarutobi - but he’d had already opened one of his weapon scrolls, flinging a veritable rain of kunai at her. Tsunade snarled, but just let the blades cut through her body like water, healing herself as she landed. As long as she didn’t think about her own blood, she’d be fine. Mitokado hissed at her when she ran for him, only just barely dodging her blows. In the distance, Tsunade could hear Sarutobi pull himself out of her homemade crevasse, but he was too late - by the time he’d be able to engage, Mitokado would be down for-

” **Tsunade-sama!** “ 

The cry was shrill and piercing, and all too familiar. Tsunade turned her head toward the bar, time frozen in her eyes. Framed in the literal hole Tsunade had made in the bar’s wall was Utatane, left hand tight in Shizune’s dark hair, painfully twisting the girl’s head back and to the side. The older woman’s right hand held a kunai against Shizune’s fragile neck.

"Put your hands on your head, Tsunade,” Utatane orders. "Then kneel, or see her die in front of you.“

Tsunade jerked a half-step forward, only to halt as Utatane pressed the edge of the blade against Shizune’s delicate throat. Even from this distance, Tsunade could see a drop of blood well up against the blade.

” _Don’t_ test me, girl. Do it now.“

Eyes fixed on Shizune’s terrified face, Tsunade lifted her hands in the air, and carefully put them on her head. She slowly knelt to the ground.

"Shizune,” she said, mouth dry. "It’s going to be all right-“

And then she knew nothing.

* * *

When she woke up, her grandmother’s severe face was the first thing she saw. Tsunade blinked once, twice, but the image didn’t go away: it was still her grandmother. Mito still had the same long, graying red hair, the same cool maroon eyes, the same pinched expression of disappointment on her face as she had the last time Tsunade had seen her. Unlike Sarutobi, she hadn’t changed at all since Tsunade had taken her leave of the village. 

"You know, for a woman who is supposedly on her deathbed, you look suspiciously healthy, grandmother,” Tsunade said hoarsely. "Did Sarutobi tell me the truth about _anything_?“

Mito’s eyes narrowed, and she huffed in irritation. "Hiruzen was more right than you give him credit for, granddaughter. I am dying - of old age if nothing else.”

“That was a lot of work for someone else’s family reunion,” Tsunade said sardonically. She flexed her shoulders as soon as Mito turned away; she was bound in some kind of cloth - wide silk ribbon, from the texture against her naked skin. She was probably swaddled in yards of the stuff, every inch inked with blood seals to contain her chakra. It was the same sort of binding used on high-level traitors before execution. "So why don’t you tell me the _real_ reason three S-class shinobi ambushed me and kidnapped my ward.“

"The Kato girl is unharmed, and will remain that way as long as you _cooperate_ ,” Mito said meaningfully. "As for why you’re here… what do you recall of your uncle’s lessons regarding the Uchiha?“

Tsunade blinked slowly. She felt muzzy enough that she could safely assume that she had been drugged, else she would already be trying to bite her way through the restraints. "I don’t know, he died when I was _six_. I don’t think we ever talked about them at all - I was more interested in other things when I had time with him.”

Mito sighed heavily, and Tsunade heard the shuffling of papers in the background. Probably looking through a reference scroll. "Foolish man. Foolish _men_ , leaving me with this responsibility!“

There was another pause as Mito slowly walked to a different area of the room, still out of Tsunade’s field of vision. She’d been wrong when she’d thought her grandmother hadn’t aged at all; her steps were noticeably slower, and she dragged a bit on the left-hand side. 

"Then I will start at the beginning: forty years ago, our village experienced our first defector,” Mito said, rustling intensifying. "His name was Uchiha Madara.“

Tsunade’s eyes widened, and she nearly choked from the shock. ” _The Fourteenth Uchiha Clan Head_ Uchiha Madara? The man our history classes stated _ended the wars and ushered in a new era of peace_ Uchiha Madara?“

"Well, that’s not something exactly we could admit publicly, could we? Hashirama’s dear friend had second thoughts about peace? Dreadful publicity, especially given how fragile and unstable the village was at the time,” Mito responded, a hint of amusement in her voice. But just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished in the arctic chill of Mito’s next statement. "But here is something only a few people alive know - Madara returned, but not alone. He’d gone up north to the endless wastes and awoke the Kyuubi from its slumber. And instead of dying like the disrespectful lout he was, he returned with the beast in tow, intent on destroying us all.“

Tsunade snorted. "The famed Uchiha sense of melodrama was still intact, I see,” she croaked. "Obviously he failed.“

"Your grandfather killed him at the Valley of the End,” Mito said, still cool as a winter wind. “But that was only half the threat - the lesser half, to be frank. Once the Kyuubi broke free of Madara’s leash, it was full of spite and vigor. It would have destroyed us all for awakening it - demons are not known for forgiving humans, or even for being able to tell us apart. We’re all insignificant, annoying ants to them, and our cities are mere anthills to step upon.”

“Let me guess, Uncle Tobirama sealed it,” Tsunade said. "What did he choose? A scroll? A lamp? That’s traditional, isn’t it?“

Mito laughed: openly, loudly, as she never had in Tsunade’s memory, not since Hashirama had died so many years before. For just an instant, Tsunade could understand why people had sung songs and told stories about the Wild Wind from Whirlpool.

"Oh, that’s very funny, dear,” Mito said, and her voice sounded a lot closer. " _Especially_ since I taught your uncle everything he knew. No, _I_ sealed the Kyuubi. Do you truly think a simple _lamp_ could hold a creature made of pure chakra and hatred? You’re a medic, Tsunade, use your head. You know the corrosive effect of chakra, even bound and contained. It’s like acid, eating away at everything around it.“

Mito finally came back into view, kneeling by Tsunade’s head. "Not much longer now,” she told Tsunade, and in a second, Tsunade heard another pair of footsteps. Within a moment, Sarutobi came into Tsunade’s field of view, what looked like a body slung over his shoulders. 

“Where do you want him?” he grunted at Mito, and she gestured at the spot next to Tsunade. Hiruzen dropped the figure there - it was a bound and gagged man, a Cloud nin from the look of him - before leaving the room, although not without one last hangdog look at Tsunade. 

Tsunade felt her skin crawl. She began to sweat in the layers of steel silk. Whatever was going to happen, it bode no good for her. 

“No, Tsunade,” Mito said gently. "I sealed the beast inside myself, and there it has remained all these long years. I’ve protected my home from the consequences of treachery for ages, but my body is no longer a secure prison. _You_ will be the next vessel of the Kyuubi.“

"Grandmother,” Tsunade gasped, but could say nothing more - Mito had wrapped a ribbon of silk steel around her mouth, blocking her tongue. Whether Tsunade would have begged or pleaded for Mito to stop, she never knew and never would. Gagging her might have been Mito’s way of preserving her granddaughter’s dignity for the ceremony ahead - but it was more likely that Mito didn’t want Tsunade’s screams interrupting her concentration.

“I would have sacrificed anyone except you, Tsunade,” Mito said quietly, and Tsunade saw tears glimmer in her eyes. "But there was no replacement to be found, not after Whirlpool fell. And I cannot let the Fox escape with my death; he seethes within me, hating us all, and once free he would only try to destroy the village once again.“

Mito reached into the sleeves of her robe, and pulled out a thin silver stiletto, clean and bright in all the wrong ways.

"So just in case I don’t survive the extraction, I will tell you this: I’m sorry I’m doing this to you.” 

And then Mito brought the knife down onto the throat of the bound Cloud nin, and his blood covered Tsunade in a bright arterial spray.

* * *

Tsunade woke up screaming, and she didn’t stop for a long, long time. She wasn’t in the dark room anymore; she wasn’t anywhere she recognized either. She was lying under a red moon in a dark sky, she was naked, and she was absolutely _covered_ in blood. She could feel the tacky texture everywhere: on her face and in her hair, between her breasts and her thighs, in the crooks of her elbows and knees, and in the webbing between her fingers and toes. There was not a single inch of her that was clean, and Tsunade wanted nothing more than to shuck off her filthy body like a ruined set of robes and leave, although she couldn’t possibly begin to say where she wanted to flee. Only the desire to _escape_ existed in Tsunade’s mind.

Suddenly, a loud and terrible roar overpowered Tsunade’s own screams. Tsunade bit her own tongue to quiet herself, and as the roar continued unabated, pushed herself up on her trembling legs. A terrible comet was burning in the sky, and in the bloody burning light, Tsunade finally saw where she was. It was a plain, like the one outside the city gates of Rain, and littered across it was innumerable still bodies. Tsunade knew in an instant that if she were to check the bodies, the faces would be far too familiar.

As the blazing comet grew ever closer to the ground, Tsunade closed her eyes and covered her face. Every mouthful of air she snatched up tasted like old blood; everything smelled like carrion. The light grew harsher and harsher, and Tsunade wondered wildly if Mito was failing, if she was going to die here.

 _Shizune_ , she thought. _Who will care for Shizune if I am gone?_

And then with an earth-shattering crash, the comet made landfall. Tsunade expected to burn; Tsunade expected to die. Neither happened, and when she opened her eyes, she saw…Rain. The proud towers of that great city, the strong walls that encircled it - it was all there, glowing a malevolent pulsing gold. And in the center of the city, something was pacing, a creature of roiling chakra and immense rage. For an instant, Tsunade and the Fox (for who else could it be?) stared into each other’s eyes over Rain’s impossible walls. For an instant, Tsunade thought of nothing at all, not even the blood and bodies that covered her mindscape. 

And then the fox opened it’s mouth wide and _screamed_ , louder than before, and Tsunade fell into darkness once again. 

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr on 3 Nov 2016 for Sumigakure's Halloween Event 2016; it started as a fill for prompt #12 Summoning Demons/Body Theft/Possession, but has morphed into a multi-chapter story by itself. I suggested crowind write this, but they demurred, forcing me to put my own spin on jinchuuriki!Tsunade into the world.


End file.
